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Before the Schools — the Mission Ground
The ground before any mission — a valley, a river, and a carrying place
Before there was a college, a mission, or a name in any European language, there was a carrying place. The ground that is now Notre Dame, Indiana, lies in the valley of the St. Joseph River — in the Miami-Illinois language…
The mission era — Ste. Marie des Lacs and the three priests
The mission at the lakes began with an invitation, and the invitation is the fact everything else hangs on. In 1830 Chief Leopold Pokagon, leader of the Catholic-leaning Potawatomi villages of the St. Joseph valley, traveled to…
The removal era — 1838, and what became of the congregation
The mission stood in the path of a policy, and in the autumn of 1838 the policy arrived with soldiers. The framework was the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the treaty cessions that followed it — for this valley, above all the…